FESTUCE.^. 469 



Culms 30-40 cm. high; leaves much like those of A', albescens. 

 Panicle dense, 6-8 em. long, 1.5-2 cm. diam. Spikelets tinged 

 with purple, tumid, oval or oblong, G-12-flowered, 7-9 mm. long; 

 empty glumes broadly oval, 1-nerved, obtuse, subacute or mucronate, 

 first 2.5 mm. long, second 3 mm. long; floral glume soft, spongy 

 on tlie lower half near the nerves, hirsute on the lower half ol" the 

 keel and the base of the lateral nerves, the glume subcircular when 

 spread, mucronate, 4 mm. long; palea 3 mm. long, deltoid-ovate be- 

 fore spreading the broad infolded margins, the base near the keels 

 thick and spongy. 



Clearly distinct from *S'. albescens, with which some have con- 

 founded it. 



Texas, NeaUey in 1893. 



11. S. purpurea (Walt.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 789 (1891). 

 Aira 2)urpuyea Walt. Fl. Car. 78 (1788). Uralepis imiyurea and 

 r. aristulata Nutt. Gen. 1:62, 63 (1818). Tricuspis imrpurea 

 A. Gray, Man. Ed. 1 : 589 (1848). 



A tufted jH'Ocumbent or ascending annual, often purple; culms 

 solid, 20-40 cm. high, with numerous bearded nodes. Leaf-blades 

 2-8 cm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide. Panicles terminal or lateral, the 

 latter included by the sheaths, very simple, 3-6 cm. long, rays 

 spikelike. Empty glumes subequal, linear, 3.5-4 mm. long; floral 

 glume linear, 4.5 mm. long, the awn 1-2 mm. long. 



New York (Buffalo), G. W. Clinton 43; New Jersey (Sandy 

 Hook); Virginia, TJ. S. Dejyt. Agricul. 553; Florida, ChirtissMbQ); 

 Illinois, Paferson; Mississippi (Ocean Springs), Tracy. 



In the herbarium of Harvard University and the Dept. Agricul. 

 at Washington are plants under the name T. sjjarsiflora Chapm. 

 Both of these are affected with smut. After careful examination, 

 I am confident that they are deformed specimens of S. pu7-p?/rea. 



Sandy soils. Massachusetts to Florida near the coast, also near 

 Lake Erie at P)uffalo, and parts of Illinois. 



12. S. albescens (Munro) Kuntze 1. c. Triodia albescens Benth. 

 Vasey, Gr. U. S. 35 (1885). 



A smooth erect tufted grass, 40-70 cm. high, lilades of sterile 

 shoots flat or involute, taper-pointed, 15-30 cm. long, 2-4 mm. 



